James B. Steinberg

James
Steinberg is Dean of the Maxwell School, Syracuse University and University
Professor of Social Science, International Affairs and Law. Prior to becoming Dean on July 1, 2011, he
served as Deputy Secretary of State, serving as the principal Deputy to
Secretary Clinton. From 2005-2008
Steinberg was Dean of the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs. From 2001 to 2005, Steinberg was vice
president and director of Foreign Policy Studies at the Brookings Institution,
where he supervised a wide-ranging research program on U.S. foreign
policy. Steinberg served as deputy
national security advisor to President Clinton from 1996 to 2000. During that period he also served as the
president’s personal representative to the 1998 and 1999 G-8 summits.

Prior to becoming deputy national security
advisor, Steinberg served as director of the State Department’s policy
planning staff, and as deputy assistant secretary for analysis in the bureau of
Intelligence and Research. Previously,
Steinberg was Senator Edward Kennedy’s principal aide for the Senate Armed
Services Committee and minority counsel, U.S. Senate Labor and Human Resources
Committee.

Steinberg's latest book is Strategic Reassurance and Resolve: US-China Relations in the 21st Century with Michael O’Hanlon (Princeton University Press,
2014). He has also authored Difficult Transitions: Foreign Policy Troubles at the Outset of
Presidential Power (2008) with Kurt Campbell.

Steinberg received his B.A. from Harvard
and a J.D. from Yale Law School. His
wife, Sherburne Abbott, is vice president for sustainability initiatives and
University Professor of Sustainability Science and Policy at Syracuse
University. They have two children,
Jenna and Emma.